EUDOXIA.
151
Who, even-eyed, looks on His children, the black and the fair,
The loved and the unloved, the tempted, untempted—marks all,
And metes—not as man metes? If thou with weak tender hand dare
To take up His balances—say where His justice should fall,
Far better be Magdalen dead at the gate of thy hall—
Dead, sinning, and loving, and contrite, and pardoned, to shine
Midst the saints high in heaven, than thou, angel sister of mine!
The loved and the unloved, the tempted, untempted—marks all,
And metes—not as man metes? If thou with weak tender hand dare
To take up His balances—say where His justice should fall,
Far better be Magdalen dead at the gate of thy hall—
Dead, sinning, and loving, and contrite, and pardoned, to shine
Midst the saints high in heaven, than thou, angel sister of mine!
EUDOXIA.
SECOND PICTURE.
DEAREST my sister, my sister who sits by the hearth,With lids softly drooping, or lifted up saintly and calm,
With household hands folded, or opened for help and for balm,
